6/4/2007

Jack:  Ah my friend Jim it has been a long time.
Jim:  Yes it has too long. Phyllis and I are both glad that you are here.
Jim:  We are celebrating it’s your 90th birthday.
Jack:  I know isn’t it nice…I don’t feel 90.
Jim:  I bet that’s true.
Jack:  I was honored by some of the tributes that I heard in recent days.  Yet I was far more honored most recently yesterday when it came to my knowledge of the attempted terror plot at the airport named after me in New York.  When in addressing those gathered it was said that to attack Kennedy hurts the entire country all over again. 
Jim:  That’s true.
Jack:  That was the kindest tribute after all these years that I could have imagined and I found myself uncharacteristically emotional because of it.  It’s amazing to me after all these years that there those that still feel that what I did, I did for this country.  What a great tribute. 
Jim:  Yes.  As I spoke the other night in group meditation that very few Presidents have been able to bring the country together as a whole as you yourself did in the 60’s through troubled times as your brother Bobby was about to do and what Martin Luther King did. We’ve lost that spark in the Presidential candidates.  That cohesion to bring the country together saying “you know lets get it done for the common good of the world”. 
 Jack:  It’s for that reason my friends that I am looking forward to the next few months as the Democratic Party moves forward with its debate process.  I still believe that the candidate who most embodies that which I believed would be Mr. Obama.  However I am less optimistic about his chances at success because of the climate of the country at this time.  There is hope that he will strengthen his stance but its going to be a hard sell for many. 
Jim:  That’s true--there are African American people who want to refer to it, who say that he’s not black enough and then there’s the whites who say that he’s not white enough and that’s the dilemma that he has to deal with.
Jack:  Jim I believe it goes deeper then the color of his skin.  My perspective is that he is not a proven commodity in Washington.  From where I’m sitting I think this is a good thing but yet this country is so troubled people are looking for a known proven commodity to lead them out of the abyss if you will and I think there’s some question as to whether Mr. Obama is capable of doing so.  The inside track for Senator Clinton is that she would embody not only her political platform but the ability to mediate that her husband, former President Clinton, would bring to the White House.  Many in America see electing Hillary Clinton as a way to bring Bill Clinton back into office without necessarily doing so. And this will be one of her strengths despite all of the tabloid media that has such a field day with what has gone on.  My God were anyone to have publicized my exploits while I was in office, no one would have had any faith in what I was doing.  Yet time has shown that I did behind closed doors did not affect the way I lead this country.  I’ve answered to myself within my own heart for those that I hurt during those times and I did hurt many most importantly I hurt Jackie and my children.  Yet that being said I do believe that I led this country well when I trusted my gut and not those who tried to advise me differently.  I led this country well enough that I was a threat to my successor, to the FBI, and to the CIA.  We need a leader today who is willing to lead knowing that that is the risk. 
Jim:  Obama is a candidate similar to Jimmy Carter.  He had no credentials in Washington so to speak.  The possibility is that he could be young enough and strong enough to geld support. 
Jack:  I do not disagree.  Yet remember my friend that the true contribution made by President Cater was made as he stepped into the roll of elder statesmen. 
Jim:  Oh yes he’s done since he’s left the Presidency then any other President. 
Jack:  His role in the Oval Office was without major shining moments if you will.  He was a technically good President and he was able to garner bi-partisan support at a time where that was somewhat unheard of.  And I agree with you that Mr. Obama has that ability.  I am not saying that I am counting him out by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact I will stand close by him in this debate upcoming and try to provide some guidance for Barack Obama is a spiritual man who is very open to guidance of spirit.
Jim:  Alright.  And I know he would welcome that
Jack:  Jim do you have any questions for me?  I feel like I’m back on my soap box again and I need to step off of it for a moment.
Jim:  No not particularly.  I’ve been watching so many candidates right now on the Republican side.  Now Senator Fred Thompson he’s going to throw his hat into the ring which is to me comical although he is a very intelligent and enlightened man. 
Jack:  And Jim if you look at the Republican Party they’re having trouble mustering any viable candidates at this time. 
Jim:  Right.  They get a movie star or TV star who has had some input in Washington maybe that’s what they are trying to do.
Jack:  Pardon my twisted Democratic sense of humor but I find hard to in vision Mitt Romney and Hail to the Chief in the same picture. 

Jim:  Yes.
Jack:  The Republican Party is foundering badly as a result of poor leadership.  The Republican Party has been seen to be ultra conservative manipulators of the World Marketplace for the good of only World business.  I think this is a fair assumption don’t you?
Jim:  Absolutely.  This is some of the things that I am now reading in the paper about the amount of stuff that is being made in China, that now toothpaste has antifreeze in it.  Whoever is having this stuff produced, they don’t care, and all they want is the dollars.
Jack:  Many of your larger corporations Jim are starting to step back and look at what is going on.  They have out-sourced too much, they have imported too much, and smart money at this time is dictating that this be reevaluated.  The American public--particularly those in the heartland-- who are so responsible for the strength of the United States, are not happy with calling for customer service on a product only to speak with someone in India who they can not understand.  The American public is tired of being asked to press a number to speak English in the United States.  It is time for the pendulum to swing back.  This is a land that is so great with potential and from what I am seeing and from what I now understand we are about ready to embark on some extremely trying times both in this country and abroad.  Climate changes, changes in the ability to feed animals for food, changes in the ability to harvest crops, without good leadership in this country in the next ten years this beautiful land is at risk of complete anarchy. 
Jim:  It’s interesting that times that I have read about people who have become successful from Vietnam and China and Taiwan and places like that in this country.  The first thing they did was master the English language and yet the Hispanics don’t understand that. 
Jack:  They don’t understand it Jim because they believe it is their birth right not to assimilate.  Think about that concept for a moment.  They believe that they are not entering someone else’s country they believe they are entitled to this country particularly the southwest.  We have allowed this to continue.  If you look back to the early 60’s in the migrant farm workers we open the door to those from Mexico who did want a better way of life, we opened the door freely if not without some strife and in doing so what was a wonderful gesture on the part of this country at the time has grown to the biggest split in the fabric of America that has existed.  What rampant illegal immigration from Mexico has done to this country is far more damaging to the United States of America than September 11th and the World Trade Center, and Pearl Harbor combined.
 Jim:  Yes it was interesting reading the article in the paper the other day that the Hispanic people that have come here through the legal process are upset about this new immigration bill offering amnesty because they did it the right way, the legal way.

Jack:  Absolutely. 
 Jim:  And they’re resentful of others coming in a trying to get a free ride.
Jack:  Without question.  And instead of saying “well the barn door is already been open for so long we can’t possible close it” the leadership at this time says we’ll fix it, we’ll just make them all legal for a price.
Jim:  Right.
Jack:  Profit motive in this country be damned, Jim.  We need to return to the core values of the United States of America.
 Jim:  That’s true.  In the 60’s there we farmers in California, Arizona, and Texas that exploited these ones that we welcomed as day laborers and abused them and used them but they were a minority most were treated very well and in today’s day in age employers can still manipulate them because of their status, their illegal status.
Jack:  Jim employers today are exploiting upstanding American citizens.
Jim:  Yes that’s true, that’s true.
Jack:  Look at Walmart my friend, look at the fast food industry which is hiring Hispanic workers above the children of this nation who have looked to that industry for their first jobs, look to the healthcare industry, look across the board.  What is happening here has to change. 
Jim:  If it doesn’t change our barn will be burned down let alone the door being open.
 Jack:  Yes indeed.  And I apologize for voicing my frustration so strongly but I do still believe in the United States of America maybe I do so blindly but I don’t think so.
Jim:  No, no there’s still, and I would say the vast majority of the people also feel the same way.  Again part of it is the fact that the silent majority and they have got to start speaking up and hopefully they will speak up tremendously in 2008. 
Jack:  Thank is my hope.  Phyllis may I ask you a question?
Phyllis:  Yes.

Jack:  And I think you will see where I am pointing with this.  When you look at the condition of the American family, the parents of the students that you have taught in the last five years, what do you see as the single biggest dilemma that they have faced in increasing numbers? 
Phyllis:  What I see is that there is no family structure, as I know a family structure.  That there aren’t boundaries, there aren’t rules, there is not guidance, there is not discipline, it’s just like people living in the same house and the so called parents just yell orders at what the children are to do and half of the time they don’t do it.  That’s what I see--there just is no family structure. 
Jack:  And what do you see is the cause of this?
Phyllis:  That the adults in the family are fractured themselves, they are not focused, they have children without really considering the impact of parenting, are not willing to commit to parenting as their primary job. 
 Jack:  I agree but now let’s take a step further, and I hope you don’t mind us engaging in this dialogue.  This is all quite true.  The destruction of the American family is crucial and is one of the things that we must focus on to rebuild America.  However, I know that the two of you believe as I have come to understand that those who are the parents and those who are the children have chosen these experiences.  As leaders of the future generation how do we acknowledge those choices and those experiences and channel that same fractured energy into a repair of the fabric of our society or is it time for the United States to revise its view on who we are?
 Phyllis:  That’s a good question, I’m not sure I know the answer.
 Jack:  These are the answers that I am looking for from the candidates that set themselves out to run for office in 2008.